Month: February 2012

Trade Fairs can be very useful for your business as long as you take the time to work out what you're selling, and who you're selling to.

While these might seem like self-evident points, many exhibitors turn up at these events with visually unappealing booths, poor promotional materials, and no clear sense of what they hope to achieve from it.

It isn't enough to simply gather a long list of names and email addresses, if these people are not potential customers. It is always worth your while to find out from the convenor who they are targeting as attendees so you have an idea of whether they fit your target market or not.

I recently walked past a billboard sporting an advertisement for a law firm. It screamed: “2900 lawyers. 43 countries.” It then displayed the name of the firm.

All I could think of was: “Wow. Who cares?”

If I wanted personalised service, this definitely was not the firm for me. Admittedly, I’m probably not their target market. No doubt, their message is best suited to global clients who want access to their firm’s lawyers in Abu Dhabi, Bogota and Piraeus. Fair enough.

However, I see this mistake being made by small business owners, most of whom are not appealing to a global audience. For example, I recently heard a coach introduce herself at a networking event with: “I’m a life coach, … Read the rest

You hover your mouse over the "unfollow" button, poise your finger to click – then back off as the voices in your head chatter: "But what if she gets offended?" "What if they tell everyone I'm a bitch?" "What if they hate me, never buy from me again and spread terrible rumours about my business?"

Neurotic, right? These were the thoughts plaguing my friend Sarah, a smart businesswoman who was bemoaning the management of her Twitter relationships.

"I'm too scared to unfollow someone because I know what it's like when I discover someone's unfollowed me," she said. "I don't care when I don't know them. But if I do know them and have … Read the rest